‘Harlem’ TV Review: Tracy Oliver’s ‘Sex & The City’-Esque Series Offers Surprising Depth Along With Plenty Of Romance

From writer Tracy Oliver (“Girls Trip”), Amazon’s latest streaming comedy “Harlem” follows a set of girlfriends in their 30s—Columbia University anthropology professor Camille (Meagan Good), fashioner designer Quinn (Grace Byers), queer dating app creator Tye (Jerrie Johnson), and aspiring singer Angie (Shoniqua Shandai)—as they navigate their professional and personal lives in their rapidly changing neighborhood. Although its blueprints stem from 2000s-era shows like “Girlfriends” and “Sex and the City,” Oliver’s show finds itself on more grounded, less unattainable footing. Shooting on location around Harlem gives the series a lived-in feel, with residents of the area likely to spot not just landmarks but also local favorites as well. 

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Like Carrie’s column voiceover in “Sex and the City,” each episode of “Harlem” begins with one of Camille’s lectures from her class entitled Anthropology of Sex and Love, attempting to extract lessons from the past and apply them to contemporary situations. In the pilot, directed by Malcolm D. Lee, Camille’s lecture focuses on the Mosuo tribe in the Himalayas. Governed by women, she describes them as a “tribe of unbreakable sisters.” This serves as the theme of the episode, as well as the show’s overarching message: Black women are the strongest when they are supported by each other. 

Although ostensibly an ensemble, Camille feels like the central figure upon whom all the other characters orbit, and Good is more than up to the task. Throughout the season Good expertly balances Camille’s many overcommitments, allowing the audience to see her brilliant mind, while also hoping she’ll stop missing the therapy appointments she keeps canceling before she breaks. She’s a go-getter within her chosen academic field and favored by her students—all her classes have waitlists—but when the head of the department Dr. Goodman (Andrea Martin) is let go, she gets off on the wrong foot with her replacement, Dr. Elise Pruitt (Whoopi Goldberg), and never quite gets back up. The tension between Good and Goldberg is delicious and made me wish there were more focus on their relationship and less on the two men Camille finds herself torn between. 

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That said, Sullivan Jones (“Halston” “The Gilded Age”) as her new beau, Jameson Royce, is quite dreamy, and the show smartly uses her reflections on what went wrong with her previous boyfriend, Ian (Tyler Lepley), to explore how shows have torpedoed smart women characters in the past. Specifically, there is a sequence where Camille is about to upend her life to move to Paris with Ian that feels like it’s in direct conversation with the finale of “Sex and the City.” It’s refreshing to see a show allow its characters to actually think before making big life choices.

Shoniqua Shandai is phenomenal as Angie, who has been living with Quinn since her record deal fell through five years earlier. Sexually the most adventurous, Angie is the Samantha of this group, reveling in her freedom to play as hard she pleases. In the group scenes, she sometimes is relegated to borderline stereotypical “sassy fat friend” territory, Shandai is often able to elevate the material adding interiority that may not have been on the page. Her incisive comic chops particularly shine as she reluctantly takes a part in “Get Out The Musical,” and later reads the pretentious director of “The Pursuit of Forgiveness” for filth. Through Angie’s exploits in show biz, “Harlem” dissects the many extra pressures that are placed on Black art, and the cost of putting blanket representation over depth and challenging storytelling. 

Through Angie and Quinn’s give-and-take relationship issues of economic inequality and even the diaspora are explored. When Angie fakes being from Barbados to work as a nanny for a rich white client of Quinn’s with a fetish for the island, Quinn calls her out on her stereotypical accent. Quinn has a fractured relationship with her mother (Jasmine Guy), who actually is from Barbados, due to her financial dependence. Despite her many privileges, Grace Byers imbues Quinn with much pathos as she grapples with her stunted emotional growth throughout the season. 

Lastly, Jerrie Johnson has probably the hardest role to nail. Tye is a queer woman of color, but she does not represent all queer women of color. Tye is an entrepreneur, having created a dating app specifically for queer women of color so they can feel safe while making online romantic or sexual connections. Her app was made to fill a need and create a safe space, but she is still a capitalist playing a capitalist game. She can be egotistical, sometimes earned and sometimes because she’s bought too much into the hype around her app. Johnson walks this tightrope well, balancing charm, business savvy, and egomania it takes to run a startup successfully. 

For the most part “Harlem” takes its intersectionality seriously, taking the time to address the various character’s economic, social, and sexual differences and privileges. Its depictions of queer dating do not just stick with Tye’s exploits, but also include Angie seeing a bisexual man,  and even Quinn exploring an unexpected same-sex attraction. However, there is an (almost) throwaway joke that unfortunately soured much of the goodwill the show had built. Camille’s department head, Dr. Goodman (Andrea Martin), losing her position for a speech she gives at a woman’s march where she accidentally treads into TERF territory. Though similar to Jay Duplass’s storyline in “The Chair,” which debuted on Netflix earlier this year, here it’s a half-baked criticism of cancel culture run amok that uses trans women as a punchline. This dangerous rhetoric is never discussed or unpacked. It’s also the only mention of trans people in the entire season. It’s hard to see a show go so hard for queer representation only to treat the most at-risk community so unjustly. 

With its ten-episode first season, “Harlem” manages to be both a breezy good time for those looking for some romance this holiday season and also a complex character study of four modern Black women chasing their dreams in the city that never sleeps. Despite a few rough patches, there is enough here to justify the cliffhanger ending, if only to give it another shot at righting those it wronged. After all, the show is about learning from your past mistakes and moving forward towards your best self. [B-]

“Harlem” is available now on Amazon Prime Video.